This invention relates generally as indicated to a hydropneumatic suspension system for tanks and other heavy vehicles, including track or tire supported vehicles, and more particularly to certain improvements in such suspension system for increasing the performance so that each wheel will move upwardly over an obstacle without imparting a similar motion to the vehicle as a whole, for improving the damping characteristics of the vehicle, and for minimizing the generation of heat and providing for much better heat dissipation, thereby greatly improving the overall reliability and performance of the system and extending the life thereof.
Heretofore, various types of suspension systems have been employed for absorbing shocks experienced by the wheels of a moving vehicle passing over rough terrain. Conventionally, such suspension systems incorporate mechanical springs such as torsion bars and the like with hydraulic dampers or shock absorbers. However, such suspension systems do not have nearly the performance and reliability of the hydropneumatic suspension system of the present invention, and nor are they as versatile and durable as the subject hydropneumatic suspension system. Other hydropneumatic suspension systems have been employed in the past, but each of the individual wheel suspension units of such prior hydropneumatic suspension systems were required to be interconnected to a central hydraulic supply to dissipate the heat that was generated during the extremely high duty cycles to which the systems were subjected, which added to the complexity of the system, made it less reliable and more subject to potential damage, and more difficult to assemble or replace.